


Unalloyed Happiness

by ana



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Birthday, Family, Friendship, legacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:27:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2569814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ana/pseuds/ana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A gathering at Vorkosigan House.  This is set after the events of Cryoburn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unalloyed Happiness

 

‘Toilet,’ Ana Alys Arqua Vorpatril declared, standing up. ‘Take me toilet please.’ She toddled straight to Miles, her arms out.  Taurie burst into tears, pushed Ana on the floor, and wrapping her arms tight around her father’s legs threw Ana a  fierce look, bellowing: ‘My papa! My papa!’   Nikki grabbed Ana so her arm pumping out struck air and not Taurie.

Miles cast apologetic looks at Ana and Ana’s parents as he tried to soothe and scold Taurie. 

It had been chaotic day and an uneasy one.  They were all there – Vorkosigans, Koudelkas, Vorpatrils, Vorbarras with spouses and children – gathered at Vorkosigan House for one reason – Aral.  A request in his will to have all his family and friends gather together so he could tell them something. Something that was on a vid, to be played a year after his funeral.

 ‘I suppose Taurie wouldn’t be so jealous if we all saw each other more often,’ Tej observed, taking her daughter from Nikki – Ana was still trying to wriggle out and get to Taurie. Before she took Ana to the lav, Tej looked at Ekaterin. ‘We’re all so busy these days.’

Ekaterin nodded, stroking Ana’s hair and kissing her brow. ‘We’ll just have to make more of an effort won’t we, Ana?’

Ana smiled and Taurie burst into fresh tears now calling for her mama.

‘I sent a card,’ Elena said abruptly.

‘What?’ Miles asked over Taurie’s wails.

Elena looked sheepish. ‘For your 40th.  I sent a card but you never said anything about a celebration so…’

‘We weren’t planetside,’ Ekaterin said, refusing to take Taurie and leaving her in her father’s arms. ‘Miles and I.  We went away. No one wanted to do anything celebratory.’

They looked at Ivan and he shrugged. ‘Not my favourite day of the year anyway.’ He had walked over to Miles and Taurie, pulling a face at her, and he was rewarded with a half giggle sob from her and managed to slowly coax her out of her father’s arms and into his own.

 

***

Miles was at the front so very few people could see him.  He had wanted to play the vid before everyone arrived but his mother refused to hand it over.  ‘You’re in the same boat as everyone else, kiddo, no one gets a heads up,’ she said, and paused before she added, ‘not even me.’

And because of that he didn’t labour the point, noting for the first time the strain in her wry smile and that sad faraway look in her eyes.

So he seated himself on the sofa, next to Gregor and Laisa, the rest of his family scattered around him, and with a dry mouth and a pounding heart, he played the vid and watched, as the late Aral Vorkosigan appeared above the vid plate and silenced the room. His father was dressed in House 

colours and looking more comfortable than the audience facing him - _hah- so what’s new?_   Everyone seemed to hold their breath. There was a long pause before his father spoke:

‘So what could it be?’ Aral Vorkosigan asked, and then there was another long pause which stretched on.  Miles, sharing the confusion of everyone else, frowned, stopped the vid and fixed his grey eyes on his mother.  ‘Are you sure this is the right vid and this isn’t the end of one of his Academy lectures?’

‘Just play it, Miles,’ Mark said, an edge in his voice.  Kareen squeezed his hand.  He looked across at her and gave her a weak smile and realised he’d been heard, judging by the look on his mother’s face on the adjacent sofa. He gave her a small ‘I’m alright’ gesture with his hands and she nodded.

Cordelia looked around the room, where most of the children were in the corner playing a game led by Helen and watched by Nikki.  Ekaterin still instinctively looking across, her eyes swinging from the younger children to Miles.  Elena was standing in the corner with Ivan and Tej – their eyes darting to the children too. Alex sat at Miles’s feet, drawing.  Alys and Simon were sitting with her and Drou, and Kou faced her across the room.  The rest of the Koudelkas – not all of them with their spouses – were lodged in various corners.  No one was drinking or eating, just waiting.

‘Mother?’ Miles asked and she turned back to him and nodded. 

‘It’s the right vid, Miles.  Play it out.  Please.’

Miles played it and watched as after more silence, his father suddenly smiled.

‘Let me guess and pick on a few of you,’ Aral said. ‘If everyone is there, Miles would have been the first to question if this was the correct vid, Mark is eager for this whole ordeal to be over, Ivan would have thought it was the wrong vid but said nothing, Gregor will be covertly but expertly studying everyone’s reactions and my Cordelia is smiling and shaking her head at me. ’ 

Everyone laughed, and just like that the tension dissipated from the room.

‘I _hate_ it when he does that,’ Gregor murmured.  _Just when I thought I couldn’t miss him more than I do…_ and then Gregor gave that smile of his. ‘And who taught me that anyway?’

‘ _That’s_ creepy,’ Ivan muttered. While Mark looked appalled and was glaring at Kareen who was laughing and apologising.

‘I’m sorry, Mark, I can’t help it! It’s funny.’

‘If I’m wrong,’ Aral continued, grinning, ‘at least you can’t call me on it.  I don’t pretend to know you all perfectly – impossible – but I know some things about you all very well.’

Miles paused the vid and turned to his mother.  ‘You’ve not seen this?’ he asked again, wondering what else his father had in store for them.

‘No, Miles. But now I see why your father spent so much time on them.’ And she was smiling, now relaxed.

‘Come on, Miles, let’s see the rest,’ Simon said.  Miles turned to look at his brother and then to Ivan with a grin. Ivan managed a small smile. ‘Play it, Miles.’   

‘But who knows how much has changed since my departure,’ Aral said. ‘And that is why I’ve made this request for you all to be here today. It’s been one year since my funeral, and probably the last time since you were all together in one place.  And if you are watching this now, it means I have likely missed the 40th birthdays of Miles, Ekaterin and Ivan, so belated best wishes to you all –‘

Miles stopped it again and everyone groaned, but even Ivan was looking at his Aunt Cordelia in utter disbelief.

‘How did he know?’ Miles asked, ‘How _could_ he know he’d miss our birthdays?’

‘We never kept anything from you, Miles,’ Cordelia said firmly, ‘so wipe that thought from your mind.  Look at the date on the vid. Look at it.’

Miles couldn’t believe he’d missed it. ‘It’s my birthday…my 39th.’

Cordelia so used to Aral’s behaviour was suddenly aware of how this was going to sound but thought well, to hell with it!  ‘Aral reviewed his will every six months _and_ on yours and Mark’s birthdays. The one year anniversary vid he’d only been recording for the last ten years.  Play the rest, Miles, I’m sure he’ll explain.’

Miles sat down again and let it play on, half expecting his father to walk in and tell him the last year had been a set-up.  

‘Forty is a milestone worth celebrating, as are all birthdays.  I suppose you may not have wished to celebrate it in the shadow of what I’m sure was my long-winded funeral, but that was wrong of you.’ He seemed to fix them all with his eyes; Ivan shifted, an apology on his lips. ‘Very wrong.  Birthdays and anniversaries are markers to where you are _now_.  It’s not about looking back – we all do too much of that.  It’s not just about your age, but about being with the people that matter at that moment. On that day. Everything I have been part of was what we all hoped for the next generation – to make smoother paths, so you would have many birthdays to celebrate and to look forward to with your families.  So you could enjoy unalloyed happiness, as far as that is possible for anyone. It’s something many of you are part of now and I hope each generation will build on… And when I speak of family I’m including you both Drou and Kou, and all your fine family. You better be watching this.’

 ‘We’re here, Aral,’ Kou whispered, staring at the ground, gripping wife’s hand, ‘always here.’

Olivia made a small noise and left the room.

‘I’ll go,’ Delia said.

‘And I know Simon will be there.  Everything I said in my separate personal message to you was true, Simon. You never let me thank you when I was alive but,’ and he grinned, ‘I got the last word.’

Simon gave a soft snort. ‘When did you ever not, Aral?’

‘And that reminds me,’ Aral continued, a thoughtful look on his face, ‘that Alys owes me one mark but I owe her one Betan dollar. Those early reckless bets I’m sure we were both happy to lose.’

All eyes swung to Alys who was composed as always, but she whispered something in Simon’s ear and he let out a laugh. Alys exchanged a look with Cordelia and you could tell there would be more about this later. 

‘And I hope…’ Aral’s voice softened, ‘I hope Elena and her family made it here today.’

Elena, startled to be mentioned too, wiped the sudden burn from her eyes.

‘You all have my personal messages to you all so I won’t go on – I don’t want to rehash those.  I didn’t request this for my amusement.  I know how difficult it will be to pull you away from your work, important work. I do know. But you have been part of each other’s lives for so long, if you lose that connection, the more time that passes the less likely it will be you will renew them.  So this is my request, my final wish…’

And this is why, no matter where they are in the galaxy, every two years, the same families and friends who gathered on that day gather again at Vorkosigan House and celebrate. Not just to celebrate the continuing legacy of Aral and his generation, but to do what Aral most wanted – to renew their friendships and connections and to never take their time together for granted.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from one of John Keats' letters: "I have never known any unalloy’d Happiness for many days together: the death or sickness of some one has always spoilt my hours" http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/selected-love-letters-fanny-brawne
> 
> Ana - as far as I'm concerned - is Ivan and Tej's first born daughter until the canon tells me otherwise. 
> 
> Many, many thanks to Sue for Beta read :D


End file.
